This is the second of a six-part blog series on “obstacles to obedience,” reasons we tell God, “No.” This comes to you courtesy of Ryan Doherty, the Summit’s North Durham campus pastor. Be sure to check out the rest of the series here: Introduction, Obstacle 2 (Time), Obstacle 3 (Earthly Treasures), Obstacle 4 (Safety), & Obstacle 5 (Lack of Training).
The rhythms of revelation and response permeate the Scriptures: God reveals himself to humanity and invites us to respond. Scripture reveals to us characteristics and attributes of God and invites us to respond in worship. Jesus himself revealed his plan to save humanity and invited his hearers to respond by believing in him and repenting from sin. After his death, he rose again, revealing his plan to share the greatest news in all the world-his gospel with every tribe, tongue and nation and invites us to respond in obedience to his command. After all, as Carl F. H. Henry said, “The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.”
Unfortunately, many of God’s people have ignored Jesus’ command to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV). They effectively ignore his promise: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14). They may agree, but do nothing to participate in that great reality of which John wrote: “For [Jesus was] slain, and by his blood, he ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev 5:9).
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, bluntly concluded, “‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ I think you should say.” He went on to encourage others to “put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.”
Booth’s predecessor and missionary to India, William Carey, put it well, “To know the will of God, we need an open Bible and an open map.”
J. Stuart Holden offers a sobering reflection: “‘Go ye’ is as much a part of Christ’s gospel as ‘Come unto Me.’ You are not even a Christian until you have honestly faced your responsibility in regard to the carrying of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.” James S. Stewart adds, “The distinctive mark of being a Christian is the concern for world evangelization—not just something tacked on to a mans personal Christianity in which he may take or leave as he chooses.”
The “prince of preachers,” Charles Spurgeon (after whom we named our Congolese son) understood this well. After someone asked, “Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved?”, he warned, “It is more a question with me whether we—who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not—can be saved.”
Perhaps Jesus was right when he said, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt 7:14).
During his lifetime, Oswald J. Smith made 21 world tours promoting evangelism and world missions. He reminds us of the selfishness and absurdity of disobeying the Lord: “No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once! We talk of Jesus’ Second Coming, when half the world has never heard of the first.”
Highlighting the insanity of disobedience, Amanda Berry Smith, a former slave who became an inspiration to thousands of woman, shared, “To stay here and disobey God—I can’t afford to take the consequence. I would rather go and obey God than to stay here and know that I disobeyed.”
What is the Lord asking you to do? Where is he wanting to send you? What is your excuse for disobeying the Lord? What is preventing you from taking the next step? In order to take even the slightest step towards obedience, we must “put our ear down to the Bible and look Christ in the face.”
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